


I'm Not a Cop!

by Bluewolf458



Category: The Sentinel (TV)
Genre: Gen, Sentinel Thursday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-13 20:20:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29284428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewolf458/pseuds/Bluewolf458
Summary: Blair is sent undercover to a gay bar
Relationships: Jim Ellison & Blair Sandburg
Comments: 6
Kudos: 24
Collections: 2021 Sentinel Thursday Recycled Challenges





	I'm Not a Cop!

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the SenTh recycled prompt 'accident'

I'm Not a Cop!

by Bluewolf

Blair was just reaching for his phone when it rang. He gave a small, half-amused smile as he answered, knowing exactly who would be calling him.

"Hello, Jim."

"Where are you?" As he had expected, it was indeed Jim's voice. "You were supposed to be here half an hour ago."

"I know." Blair sighed. "I was just going to phone you. I've been held up, and I've got no idea when I'll get away from here."

He could almost see Jim's puzzled frown as he asked, "Aren't you at Rainier?"

"No. I'm on the road halfway between Rainier and the PD."

"Don't tell me that clunker of yours has broken down again, and you're waiting for a tow truck."

"I wish it was that simple. No, nobody's moving. There's been some kind of accident; the road ahead is totally blocked. Someone just behind me had the bright idea of trying to turn and look for a different route - and he misjudged and now the road behind me is blocked too."

"Right. I suppose there are some patrol cars there?"

"Not at the guy behind me, but yes, I can see a patrol car on the other side of the accident in front of me."

"How far away are they?"

"Mmm... a good five minutes, I'd say."

"All right. Lock your car, take your car keys and go down to the patrol officers. With luck at least one of them will know you - "

"Not if they're from a different precinct," Blair pointed out.

"Ah." Jim had forgotten that the precinct where he worked, while it was the main PD in Cascade, was not only one in the city. "Do it, though. Tell them who you are, and that you need to get here ASAP."

"Okay." Blair wasn't sure that that would do much good, but agreeing to it would get Jim off his back.

He gathered up his backpack, locked the car door and headed towards the main accident.

Just as he reached it, one of the patrol officers was pushing a phone back into his pocket. The man looked around, and said, "Name?"

"Blair Sandburg. I'm trying to get to the Central Precinct."

"Yes, I've just had a call about you. Leave your car keys with me, and my partner will take you to Central."

 _Boy, Jim must have worked fast!_ Blair thought. "My car - a Volvo - is just this side of a guy who tried to turn and look for another route - and crashed. Nobody was hurt, but I can't see anyone behind him being able to move forward even after you've got this lot cleared."

The patrol officer shook his head. "In some ways, the sensible thing to do - look for another route. But to crash in the process... Anyway, once all this is cleared where do you want us to take your car?"

"Central precinct will do fine, and you can leave the keys with either Reception or Major Crime."

***

By the time he joined Jim, Blair was nearly an hour later than he was supposed to be, but at least he was there.

When he entered Major Crime Rhonda called over to him. "Simon's office."

"Thanks, Rhonda." He went quickly over, knocked and went straight in.

"Sorry about that," he said as he sank into the seat beside Jim.

"Not your fault if the road was blocked." Simon sounded more understanding than Jim had originally done.

"The patrol officers there were very helpful, once I reached them," Blair added. "Officers Brent and Levine, from 3rd Precinct. I told them to bring my car here once they had everything cleared."

Simon nodded. "Establishing your credentials," he said.

"Though someone had just phoned as I reached them," Blair added. "They knew my name. So - what have I missed?"

It was a straightforward undercover job. They needed him to visit a local gay bar - Simon, presumably, taking the view that a lot of people assumed that a man with long hair must inevitably be gay. His backup would be a detective from Vice, whose case this actually was; several people visiting the bar had been assaulted on leaving it with someone who had made advances to them. It didn't seem to be the same man who had approached them all, according to the description that the victims gave, though the attacker was probably the same every time; but he never seemed to assault both men.

"I'll be outside," Jim added. "If someone approaches you, Charlie Peron will let me know - also he'll follow you out. He'll deal with whoever you've gone out with; I'll deal with whoever tries to attack you."

"The victims are all sure that it was a third party who attacked them, not the guy they left the bar with?" Blair asked.

"Yes. Two or three expressed surprise that the man they were with didn't try to help them. Just seemed to make a run for safety. But they could easily have been an accomplice."

***

Blair went to Anything Goes wearing a pair of almost too tight jeans and a blatantly effeminate shirt he had bought for a fancy dress party several years previously. He had never been quite sure why he hadn't handed it back into Goodwill after the party, but it was certainly going to be useful for this job. Charlie entered half a dozen patrons behind him. Blair headed for the bar, where he bought an apple juice, then paused, glanced around, and headed for a table. Charlie, he registered, was wearing an outfit not too dissimilar, and after buying what looked like a coke headed for a table from which he could watch Blair without being too obvious about it.

And Blair could see Charlie without being too obvious about that, either.

Mentally, Blair was frowning. In Charlie's place he would have worn something that didn't say quite so openly 'I'm looking for a partner for the night!' - Charlie was, after all, supposed to be his backup! So he really wasn't surprised when a tall man wearing a shirt that made anything that Brown wore look positively nondescript approached Charlie. Charlie glanced over at Blair, who nodded; then Charlie got up and headed for the door with the man. Blair took a final gulp of his apple juice, deliberately (but, he hoped, in a way that looked accidental) spilling some of it down his shirt, got up and followed. He had suddenly become Charlie's backup.

Outside, he saw that the man who had approached Charlie was bending over to kiss him - and then another man appeared, grabbed Charlie's 'friend' and tossed him to one side - then turned his attention to Charlie, snarling, "Fucking fag!"

The man who had approached Charlie turned to run; Blair saw Jim appear out of the shadows, gave a quick wave and turned to run after the fleeing man, knowing that between them Jim and Charlie would have no difficulty taking down the attacker.

But once he was a few yards away, the 'fleeing' man stopped running. Blair walked up to him. "Good evening."

"What... ?"

"Cascade PD," Blair said. All right, he was an unpaid observer, but he was working with a detective in Major Crime. "I saw what happened back there, and I don't blame you for running - but I do wonder why you didn't try to help your friend."

"I'd only just met him - I was just trying to save my own skin!"

"But you were the one who initiated the kiss."

"Well... yes, I don't deny I was attracted - "

"Was this the first time something like that has happened to you? You pick up someone in the bar, go outside, kiss him and someone attacks?"

The man swung a fist at Blair, who just smiled, caught the arm and used the man's momentum to throw him onto the ground. Then Blair quietly sat on the man's shoulders, holding him down with his full weight.

"Jim?" he called, knowing that his friend wouldn't know just where they had gone.

A few moments later, Jim appeared, grinning happily as he saw how Blair had disabled the man. "Well done, Chief," he said.

Together they got the man to his feet. "Name?" Jim asked.

The man just glared at him, saying nothing.

They took him back to the bar's parking lot, where two patrol cars had just arrived. The prisoners were put, one in each car, and Jim, Blair and Charlie piled into Jim's truck. Then the three vehicles headed off to the PD.

The prisoners were separated, Jim questioning the attacker and Charlie the man who had approached him. He remained silent; but the attacker, Zeke Trent, broke almost immediately, accusing the other man, Donald, of masterminding the whole thing. Jack Donald was the homophobe; pretending to be gay, he picked up victims from the bar, took them outside and made to kiss them, leaving Trent to attack and beat up the men Donald had selected. "I've nothing against men who are queer," he insisted. "But I owe Donald quite a lot of money, and this was one of the ways he wanted paid."

"He shouldn't have kept going to Anything Goes," Jim told Trent. "Did he really think his other victims wouldn't go to the cops? If he had varied where he went - there are at least five gay bars in Cascade - it would have been harder to find him. We had two men there tonight, and he picked one of them."

***

Once home, Blair headed for his room and stripped off the too-tight clothes. Wearing a more comfortable sweatshirt and jeans that were much looser, he rejoined Jim, taking the beer Jim handed to him with a grin.

"I think I want to get rid of that shirt," he said. "I really don't know why I kept it."

Jim grinned. "Keep it," he said. "It'll come in useful the next time we need you to go undercover to a gay bar."

"You must be joking!" Blair exclaimed. "You keep telling me I'm not a cop! And I'm saying that myself now, I'm not a cop! I'm an observer!"

"I've told you before," Jim said quietly. "You were the best cop I've ever met and the best partner I could have ever asked for. Yes, you're an observer. But you're a cop too. And I, for one, am more than glad of that."


End file.
